BHRN Welcomes Canadian House of Commons Motion on Rohingya
Burma Human Rights Network applauds Canada’s House of Commons for unanimously passing a motion on the Rohingya which acknowledges the findings of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission and recognizes the crimes against the Rohingya amount to genocide which responsible parties in the Burmese military should be prosecuted for. The motion also backed calls to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and welcomed the decision by the ICC to recognize its jurisdiction in regards to the crime of forced deportation of the Rohingya from Burma to Bangladesh.
“Canada is leading the world in taking a bold stand for human rights and for the Rohingya. This motion is extremely welcome and should be applauded. It is the hope of many that the rest of the world, especially United State of America, the United Kingdom and European Union, will follow Canada’s example and take a stand for the Rohingya, acknowledge the findings of the UN Fact-Finding Mission, and support the referral of Burma to the ICC so that justice may be possible for the victims and peace may come for the country’s most vulnerable," said BHRN Executive Director, Kyaw Win.
ICC Investigation A Chance For Accountability
BHRN welcomes a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it can exercise jurisdiction to investigate the deportation and force transfer of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people from Burma to Bangladesh as a possible crime against humanity.
“We support this move by the ICC. We call on international actors to back this investigation and to demand the prosecution of Burma’s generals,” said BHRN Executive Director Kyaw Win. “We must continue to advocate for justice not only in the case of the expulsion of the Rohingya, but also for the wide range of atrocities that the Tatmadaw has committed against so many communities in Burma.”
In Burma, Prison for Reporters and Impunity for Generals
3 September 2018, London, UK – The conviction of two Reuters journalists by a Yangon court signals another failure by the National League for Democracy administration to protect human rights and press freedom in Burma, and stands in stark contrast to the impunity enjoyed by the military for the crimes that these reporters exposed.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday for violating the Official Secrets Act in their reporting of a 2017 massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. They have been held in the notorious Insein Prison since December of last year.
